Search for plane crash hero in Russia’s Karelia

Journalists and internet bloggers are in search of an unnamed hero who rescued the injured after a plane crash in Russia’s north-western Republic of Karelia.

Just after the Tu-134 hit the ground, three men approached the plane and managed to carry several people out of the wreckage before the explosion. One of those men later gave an interview to Russia’s Vesti channel, but his name was not mentioned in the report. ”I carried three people out of the wreckage,” he said. ”One was either a girl or a woman, I could not tell, but she was lighter than the man – it was hard to see, it was dark. Then there was a man, he wasn’t heavy, he was lighter than me. Myself and another person, Father Andrew, also carried out a big man called Sergey. There was a third person helping us, then we carried out two more people from the wreckage in the middle of the road. Another man reached out his hands towards me but I couldn’t make it to him – everything started exploding – I couldn't get any closer, everything was engulfed by fire. I’m sorry…”The man is thought to be one of the locals, living not far from the crash site. Russia’s Komsomolskaya Pravda daily has urged the citizens of Petrozavodks, near where the tragedy occurred, to report any information on the identity of the unnamed hero.The paper believes a person who risks his life to save people instead of trying to capture the incident on video – like many around the crash site did – should be praised for his feat. The internet bloggers have fully supported Komsomolskaya Pravda’s initiative, also taking part in the hunt. "He put his life on the line, but didn’t even think about it,” one of the bloggers wrote. “It appears such men are the true heroes of our time. They don’t rush for their video cameras – they rush to help, not for medals and honors, but because they can’t leave any other way.” Eyewitnesses in their blogs reported that three people were involved in saving the injured. One of them was a man, who appeared on TV. Another was also wearing a red jacket, was slim and wore glasses. And the third person was wearing dark clothes.         The Tu-134 passenger plane belonging to RusAir crashed near Petrozavodsk early on Tuesday. Forty-four people on board died, with eight survivors being taken to hospital with serious injuries.